Chapter 28: The First Earnings

"Hah. Herb gathering is the lowest of the low. It barely makes any money."

"A mission is still a mission."

There was no benefit in arguing with someone who already disliked him.

Qiu Nuoya kept his replies short, hoping the conversation would end there.

Unfortunately, Warren seemed even more irritated by that response and continued walking closer.

"Only bottom tier adventurers take bottom tier jobs."

"You’re right. I only became an adventurer yesterday, so I really am at the very bottom." Qiu Nuoya pointed toward the ground. "By the way, please don’t step on the Ether Leaf."

Warren clicked his tongue loudly once again.

Without another word, he turned around and walked away.

Qiu Nuoya had no intention of picking a fight.

Right now, earning enough money to support himself was far more important.

"I think he’ll eventually get bored, but you’ve certainly caught the attention of a troublesome kid," Viktor said with a faint smile.

"As long as I don’t react to him, it shouldn’t be a problem."

Viktor chuckled.

"You’re surprisingly mature for your age, Nuoya."

Well, it’s because mentally, he really was a middle aged man.

After forty years of life, he had learned plenty about dealing with unpleasant coworkers.

So this kind of situation hardly bothered him.

By the time Qiu Nuoya finished gathering herbs for the entire day, he had earned one copper coin and three small copper coins.

That was about 150 yuan.

He wondered whether earning the equivalent of 150 yuan a day was considered good or bad in this world.

The smallest denomination of currency here was the small copper coin.

Qiu Nuoya estimated that one small copper coin was roughly equivalent to 5 yuan.

Ten small copper coins equaled one copper coin.

Ten copper coins equaled one silver coin.

Ten silver coins equaled one gold coin.

Everything increased in multiples of ten, making the system very easy to understand.

Apparently, there was even a platinum coin worth ten gold coins.

That was an incredible amount of money.

The lodging fee at the shared house cost one copper coin per night.

That meant more than half of today’s earnings would disappear just paying for a place to sleep.

Apparently, paying for several days at once earned a discount, so Qiu Nuoya wanted to save up enough money before paying in advance.

Still, life was even tighter than he had expected.

Well, he had already known it would be difficult.

At this rate, he would barely earn enough to feed himself.

Of course, if he eventually took on higher paying missions, life would probably become much easier.

After finishing his first adventurer mission, Qiu Nuoya once again found himself invited to dinner at the banquet hall.

As he sat there thinking about what he should do from now on, Igor suddenly smacked him on the back. "Why are you making such a serious face? Kids should just eat their food quietly."

The cheerful Igor was drunk again today.

Actually... Were the people here seriously holding a banquet every single day?

"Even so, I can’t just laugh about it when I think about my future income," Qiu Nuoya said. "Right now, I’m relying on everyone for both my lodging and meals. I’ll repay that little by little later, but I also need to save money to buy equipment. With what I’m earning now, I can barely afford to survive day by day."

"Isn’t that just how adventurers are?" Igor replied. "You managed to eat a proper meal today. At your age, that’s already enough!"

"Eh..."

"Well, adventurers are generally like that," Viktor added. "Most people only start seriously planning their finances once they reach the age where they have a family."

Today, Viktor was sitting beside Qiu Nuoya while drinking fruit juice made from freshly squeezed fruit.

Apparently, he had firmly decided to stay away from alcohol for a while.

"Besides, if you continue completing missions seriously, by the time you reach Rank D Adventurer, you should be earning enough to build your own house," Viktor said. "I honestly don’t understand why you’re in such a hurry at your age, Nuoya."

"Rank D Adventurers can build houses...?" Qiu Nuoya thought about it.

Normally, how many years did it take to reach Rank D Adventurer?

Until then, was it really acceptable to live day by day like this?

People with the attitude of "I don’t need money for tomorrow" might be fine with that kind of lifestyle.

But Qiu Nuoya could not do it.

He needed some savings to feel secure and prepared for unexpected situations.

Living without any financial backup would only make him anxious.

"Stir fried Sunrise Flowers, here you go!"

Today, Aria came over and approached Qiu Nuoya’s table.

So that was why she and the others had not come near him yesterday.

They had been wary of Viktor because he was drunk.

Still, If they already knew what would happen, they could have told him beforehand.

Seriously.

The Sunrise Flowers that Qiu Nuoya had gathered were now sizzling in a hot stir fry with steam still rising from the dish.

When he tasted it, he found that it was surprisingly delicious.

From now on, he would definitely make an effort to collect more Sunrise Flowers.

"By the way, the kitchen here is available for anyone to use, right?"

"Yeah. If the ingredients don’t have anyone’s name written on them, anyone can use them freely," Igor explained. "There are adventurers who bring back things that look edible while hunting monsters, so we usually have a decent supply of ingredients."

Oh, so that was how it worked?

Qiu Nuoya had always wondered where all the food came from.

Breakfast was mostly just bread and fruit, without much actual cooking involved, but if he came here, he could eat a proper meal.

As for the banquet dinners, everyone seemed to bring out whatever they liked and nobody had ever asked him to pay for anything.

He had assumed Igor and Viktor were simply treating him to everything.

But apparently, that was not the whole story.